An Excuse for Conversation
by The Loser Lord
Summary: Its not that approaching the person you like is so difficult, its coming up with the excuse to talk to them that's the hard part. –SasuSaku, AU


**A/N: **Just did this on a whim; I hope you like it!

* * *

**An Excuse for Conversation  
**kirei na yukki

* * *

Sakura smiled when she felt her phone buzz; she had recieved a new text message. Eager to read the text, Sakura ripped her phone off of the desk on which it sat and pressed the unlock key.

_One new text message_. Her smile widened as she hit the "read" button.

_From: Facebook  
You have a new comment from Yamanaka Ino! Click here to read the message!_

Her smile dropped and she rolled her eyes irritably. Sakura hated getting texts that weren't from the person she wanted them to be from. Sakura looked at her phone dejectedly and sighed, placing it back on her desk.

It had been over an hour since she had texted her friend, Sasuke. Sasuke didn't know it, but Sakura had the biggest crush on him; ever since she started talking to him at one of their friend Naruto's birthday party. She had asked him for his number, he gave it to her, and they spent most of their time texting.

"You get on my nerves," she said to her phone. Sakura rolled over on her bed and proceeded with her impossible Calculus homework; Sakura's eyes faltered between the complex issues that looked similar to Chinese and her quiet cell phone.

"I really need to get this done..." she sighed.

In the midst of Sakura's last problem, 45 minutes later, her phone began to buzz. Sakura looked up calmly; she didn't want to get her hopes up like all the other times.

"Its probably another facebook message," she said to herself. Sakura grabbed her phone again and pressed the unlock button; a wide smile came onto her face when she saw the name across her notifications.

_From: Sasuke  
The answer is 42._

Sakura sighed happily and held her phone close to her chest. This seemingly important message, which she had sent almost 2 hours ago, was just the answer to one of the math equations. One thing about Sakura: she was romantically retarded.

Not so much like Sasuke, but she was pretty bad. Pushing her square-rimmed spectacles up her nose, Sakura quickly saved the message so she could look at it with all the other one word replies she had saved before. Giggling to herself, Sakura jumped on her bed and began to review all of her messages; her school work remained in their place, forgotten.

* * *

"Sakura, do you like Sasuke?" Sakura's cheeks turned bright pink as she spluttered all over the cafeteria table. Sakura's best friend, Ino, looked at Sakura casually, taking a sip from her glass of lemonade.

The two sat in the outside courtyard, next to the cafeteria. From where they sat, Sakura could see Sasuke and his friends eat lunch on the inside. Sakura shook her head furiously before responding, "No, no! What makes you think that?" she said nervously.

Ino smirked at her friend, making Sakura's heart race, "What, Ino?" she asked, trying to make herself seem as least obvious as possible. Ino shook her head and picked up a fried dumpling, "Nothing".

The two quickly finished eating and walked back inside the cafeteria; Sakura's eyes scanned the room, her sole objective only to look at Sasuke's face and not be conspicuous about it. Ino laughed, "Sakura, if you keep looking around like that, you'll trip over something."

Sakura scoffed, "I'm sure I don't know what you - "

A group of sophomores had been playing with their food again; there was a puddle of chocolate milk all over the floor as a result of their experimentation. Unfortunately, Sakura hadn't seen the spill; she slipped and fell flat on her back. The impact of the fall was so hard and sudden, that her chest violently heaved forward and her head snapped back, hitting the floor with a loud, painful thud.

Bystanders had broken out into roars of cruel laughter; typical high schoolers. Ino clicked her tongue, walked up a sophomore and splashed some of her lemonade in their face.

"Asshole, leave your shit in the container, not the floor," she said before walking over to Sakura. She bent down and helped her mortified friend stand, "Are you okay?" she asked concerned. Sakura was fine, her head hurt like crap, but she was fine. It was her dignity that needed an emergency room. Not only had she slipped on some chocolate milk in the middle of the cafeteria, but she tripped in perfect view of _Sasuke_! He was facing the part of the room through which they entered!

Sakura sighed and rubbed the back of her head; she groaned, "Oh, I'm fine. Its my self-respect that isn't."

Ino giggled and waved a hand in front of her face, "You'll be fine!"

The girls passed by Sasuke's table, much to Sakura's horror. The occupants were still howling with laughter. Sakura was too embarrassed to even look up, so she couldn't see if Sasuke was laughing.

"Hey Sakura! You're supposed to drink the milk, not wear it!" from the obnoxious voice, Sakura could tell that Kiba was speaking. She kept her head down. The boys roared louder with uncontrollable laughter. Her jaw clenched and she swung her right hand, slapping Kiba upside the head hard.

Everyone stopped laughing, surprised at the violence that Sakura had resorted to. Ino snickered at Kiba's dumbfounded expression. Naruto was glaring at Kiba and Sasuke had an unfathomable expression plastered on his face. He looked at Sakura, who was still looking down.

"That's not funny, you jerk!" she shrieked, the back of Sakura's head throbbed from the impact of the fall. She let out a small groan of pain and rubbed the back of her skull. Still furious at them, the sophomores, and herself, Sakura stomped out of cafeteria to the student parking lot to grab a change of clothes from the trunk of her car.

In the car, Sakura managed to find a pair of shorts to replace her chocolate-stained jeans. After changing, Sakura trudged back into the building, carefully watching to see if there were any hazardous liquids hanging out on the sidewalk. She entered the building and spotted Ino talking to Sasuke. Sakura's heart stopped.

_Oh no, oh no...maybe she's telling him right now that I like him! But how? Ino would know. Shit, I'm so screwed. This is going to be the most embarrassing day of my life! Oh shit. FML, FML, FML, FML..._

"Hey, Sakura! Come over here for a minute!" Naruto called; Sakura noticed the boys smirking at Sakura. She began to panic inwardly and dashed towards the hallway.

"Oh no thank you! I'm fine! B...Bye!" she said as she ran.

Sakura's paranoia got worse as she ran father away from the cafeteria. On a normal day, a day where Sakura doesn't have a crush on Sasuke, she'd be commenting on how ridiculous she's being.

She took a turn down another hallways just in time to meet an opened locker door. Sakura fell onto the ground with another loud smack.

* * *

"What's up with Sakura?" Naruto asked. Everyone looked towards her best friend; Ino shrugged, "She's just been like that the entire day."

Of course Ino was lying, but it was an unspoken rule to _never_ talk about boys in the presence of boys. She knew Sakura had a crush on Sasuke and she knew that Sakura was embarrassed for slipping in front of him and getting chocolate milk all over her jeans.

Ino looked over to Sasuke; he sat quietly, as usual, slowly chewing the riceballs his mother had made for him. Sasuke's dark eyes snapped over to meet Ino's blue ones. He blinked once, twice, and then excused himself from the table.

"Where are you going, Sasuke?" Naruto asked. Sasuke held up the Calculus book that Sakura had left on the table when she smacked Kiba, "I'm going to give her book back."

"Okay, see you later!" Naruto yelled. His best friend nodded and headed out into the main foyer. As soon as Sasuke disappeared, Naruto's hand flew to his mouth. He began to _giggle_.

"N-Naruto, why are you _giggling_?" Ino asked suspiciously. Naruto's nose scrunched and his lips curled, "Do you think Teme will care if I eat his onigiri?"

* * *

Sasuke flipped his cell phone open and texted his pink-haired friend. He waited. Usually she'd answer with in _seconds_, was she so embarrassed that she wouldn't want to talk to anyone including him?

"Sakura, you're so annoying," he muttered. He snapped his phone shut and continued down the hall, Sakura's Calculus book tucked under his arm. He wondered if she had ever been able to solve that equation he got 42 for. It had taken him 2 hours to try to solve the equation; he had been absent from school for 2 weeks before and so he missed the lessons on how to solve those types of problems.

He turned the corner and tripped over something soft. Sasuke flew forward and landed on his stomach; he groaned in pain. The dark-haired Uchiha rolled onto his back and sat up. Almost immediately, his lips began to twitch upwards. He saw Sakura on the ground sleeping and a bent locker door.

"Idiot." he muttered.

Sasuke stood and shook Sakura; she shook her head and sucked her teeth, "42...the answer is 42." she mumbled. Sasuke stopped and listened to the unconcious girl sleep talk.

"Oh, Sasuke, I already knew the answer was 42...I just wanted to see that we had something in common," she continued, "and we do have something in common; its the answer to number 67!"

Sasuke smirked and shook his head, "And I thought I was looking for an excuse to talk to you." he said. He bent down lower and lifted Sakura into his arms. It was more of a struggle to stop himself from smiling than it was to carry her _and_ walk the far distance to the nurse's office. Sakura's textbook lay on the floor next to the bent locker, forgotten.

* * *

"Where were you?" Ino asked as Sakura exited the clinic. Sakura scratched the back of her neck, "Um, in there obviously. A locker door smacked my face and I ended up there."

Ino's cheeks puffed up at her best friend's stories, she stiffled a few snorts. Sakura glared and hit Ino's arm, "What?" she snapped. Ino shook her head and shoved Sakura's Calculus book in her arm.

"Where'd you find this?" Sakura asked; she could have sworn she had it with her before. Ino shrugged, "Kiba's stupid face tripped over it when we were walking to Government."

"Oh." it must have been by the locker that Sakura fell near. The warning bell rang again and Sakura waved good bye to Ino. Her next class was with Sasuke and Sakura's heart leaped with joy at that thought.

She weaved in and out of the slow traffic in the hallways; she wanted to be early to class so she could talk to Sasuke. They didn't sit near each other because their teacher was a "square" and therefore sat everyone according to last name. Instead, Sasuke sat next to some girl named Karin.

Sakura was the second to arrive and sat at her desk next to Hyuuga Hinata, Naruto's girlfriend of 2 years.

"Hey Hinata!" Sakura greeted. Hinata gave Sakura a gentle smile and nodded, "Hello, Sakura."

The two chatted for a couple of minutes, discussing matters such as the fiasco in the cafeteria and upcoming events at school. With them being seniors, prom was coming soon. Hinata turned to Sakura, a curious expression on her face.

"Who are you going with to prom, Sakura?" Sakura pushed down an obvious blush and shook her head furiously. "N-No one!"

Hinata giggled, "Why won't you ask him?"

"Because girls don't ask guys out!" Sakura responded; clearly she was dreading imagining the response she possibly would receive if she had Sasuke as a prom date! Sasuke was an intellectual who did not seem interested in petty things like relationships. Sakura grimaced at this notion.

"Girls don't ask guys out?" Hinata reinterated.

"No, we don't." Sakura responded.

"Sasuke, do you want to go with me to prom?" Sakura's ear almost fell off her head; she turned around and saw Sasuke and Karin sitting at their table. They were staring at each other.

Sakura ground her teeth and banged her head against the desk, "And this is why girls should ask guys out." she corrected. Hinata frowned and patted Sakura's back, "It'll be fine..."

"I should have known that he would go with Karin! They've known each other for _years_," Sakura sighed dejectedly.

"But you never even heard his answer." Hinata countered. Sakura shrugged and accidentally pushed her Calculus book off her desk, "Sometimes, you don't have to."

* * *

"This will, by far, be the worst night of my life," Sakura said to Ino. The two were getting ready for prom at Ino's house; Ino was going with her best guy friend Shikamaru and Sakura was going by herself.

"Aw, don't be so dramatic! It'll be fun, and besides, you don't know if Sasuke said yes to Karin or not!" Ino chided. Sakura rolled her eyes and removed the last roller from her hair. Ino grinned and pinched Sakura's cheeks, "D'aw! You look so _purty_!" she cooed.

"Shut up."

When they finished, Ino and Sakura quickly walked downstairs, where Shikamaru was waiting. Ino smiled widely at Shikamaru, who was blushing at the sight of his gorgeous prom date. Sakura beamed at the unofficial couple. Suddenly, the doorbell rang.

While Ino's mother and father took pictures of Shikamaru and Ino, Sakura went to go answer it; she figured it was the limo driver. When she opened the door, her wretched Calculus book was shoved into her arms. "What?"

Sakura looked up and gasped. Sasuke stood before her, clad in a tuxedo that surprisingly matched the color of Sakura's dress. Sakura chucked the book inside the house and stepped outside, closing the door behind her.

"What are you doing?" she asked. Sasuke smirked, "I'm taking you to prom." he answered. Sakura's brow rose and she shot him a quizzical look; Sasuke's smirk remained in place. Sasuke sighed and took her hand, "Look Sakura, I know I'm not very good at this, but...I..." pink graced his cheeks, "..._I like you_..." he muttered.

Sakura's heart exploded at the sudden out-of-character declaration coming from Sasuke. She couldn't stop smiling, "I like you too, Sasuke." she answered. Sakura squeezed his hand and led him inside the house for her photoshoot.

Ino couldn't stop smiling and neither could Sakura.

As Sasuke wrapped his arms around her waist for the picture, Sakura stood on the tips of her toes and pecked his lips right as the flash went off. Sasuke turned pink again and Ino giggled.

Sasuke handed his phone to Shikamaru, asking him to take another picture. Shikamaru took the phone and set up the camera; while he was doing so, Sakura looked at Sasuke.

"Why did you come here with my math book?" Sakura asked. Sasuke looked to the side; he grumbled, "I needed an excuse to talk to you."

Sakura laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck, "Well now you don't, so smile Sasuke!"

Ino looked over Shikamaru and smirked at the texts that Sasuke had saved on his phone.

_From: Sakura  
Hey, what did you get for number 67?_

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**End.  
**Doooonnneeee!  
I wanted something a tad bit less fluffy than usual. Erm, my inspiration for this piece is one of my close friends. This person is accident prone :) I don't know if its stalkerish or not, but whenever I texted someone I liked and we had an interesting coversation, I would save the conversation in my texts. Oh well, whatever. I'm so stoked for senior year, so I wrote this.

Review (:


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